Two Weeks Until California!

It seems like months away actually!! But, I do get to leave two weeks from today to head to southern California where I get to serve on a committee that will help to stear decisions that will be made in the next few months to help independant music stores like Progressive Music. There's so many issues to discuss and this should be a fascinating experience.

This is the craziest time of the year for us at Progressive. With back to school comes lots of school tryouts, lots of deliveries and lots of time and effort trying to make it all work as smooth as possible. All easier said than done.

In the last week, I've been to four different school for big deliveries and been to two schools for instrumental tryouts. On top of is maintaining the normal tasks of business.

Oh, did I mention band?!?! That's always a time consumer this time of year. After a full day of practice on Saturday, we we out to our first show at Brentwood. It was a good day to get a lot done and to get some of the kinks worked out. The push is on now to get things ready for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you interested, you can see the band's progress this season on our website (Sorry for the shameless self promotion)

Since we all live in a blog world, I though it would be fun to share with you some of the blogs I ready EVERY day.

The Artful Manager: The Business of Arts and Culture
WTAE-TV's Wendy Bell
MacYapper - Pittsburgh Talk Show Host John McIntire
Catalysts & Connections (Music Education)

Never Eat Alone
What's Happening at CNN
The Happiness Project
The Burgh Blog
WTAE-TV Andrew Stockey
WTAE-TV Ashley DiParlo - Plugged in Blog
Happiness and Public Policy
The Carbolic Smoke Blog
WTAE-TV's Michelle Wright
George Hopkin's - Youth Education in The Arts

Perhaps another day, I'll post some other websites I can't go a day without looking it.

5 Years Ago At This Moment

I'm here at work and I have CNN Pipeline on streaming the original coverage of 9/11/01. 5 years ago at this moment, I was sitting in the editing suite of my college television station meeting with my producer trying to come up with some stories for that nights show. I was racing around as on 9/12/01, I was supposed to leave for a news directors convention. That never happened.

The moment the pictures of the World Trade Center came up on our screens, our lives changed. From our perspective at that tv station, we immeidately went into action. WE were on the air by 9:30. I was live on the air in shorts and a t-shirt for the first hour or so before someone could go and get a suit for me.

Our studio wasn't even set up to do television yet. We were setting up that afternoon. So, we quickly set up lights etc. and went live for the day. I pulled together whatever crew I could find and we made it work. As a CNN affiliate, we had amazing access to so many live pictures. We mobolized our reporters - told the story of Clarion reacting, told the story of a pilot who was forced to land at the Clarion airport who did see the towers on fire. We reported the Shanksville crash before CNN even had it. It was a sad and scary day, however a day that everyone at that tv station learned so much.

I was on the air for hours and hours. Most of it is a blur still. We did interviews with local residents, local politicans, tried to explain what we were seeing on the screen and at times were just speechless as the news kept coming in.

At a few points, we pulled off the air and re-grouped to get ourselves on the same page. That was a near impossible process as the news kept changing throughout the day. My staff did better than could have been expected. We were all stressed and scared. I've gone back and watched the tapes of our coverage a few times - I am still amazed at what we did and still amazed at what really happened that day. Everytime I watch the tape, I find something else that I forgot happened.

I still thank our faculty who did so much to help that day. They rolled their computers into our studio to help us stay on the air. They went and bought the entire staff lunch and dinner because we were so busy, we forgot to eat.

We were all so exhausted at the end of the day. We learned so much from that day. I think we've ALL learned so much from that day as we look back at it now.

I continue to watch the re-boradcast of CNN's coverage. I still find myself saying wow and having that apprehensive feeling I did 5 years ago at this exact same time.

Doesn't Pay to Have or Do Anything Nice

So, I wrote that I got a new car.

I wake up yesterday to find the bumper has been keyed. How nice. The previous owner of the car had it for 59,000 miles with no scratch. I haven't even put a tank of gas in it and there is a scratch across the back bumper.

What are people thinking? Does this give them that much joy to ruin someone else property? I know I not the only this has happened to in my building. My old car had similar scratches and so do several other cars who park here. What can you do? No one can catch who does this stuff. And there's no way to prove exactly who did it anyway.


I come back to... what are people thinking?

The Fall is Here...

Been awhile since I actually wrote on here.

Updates...
FInally got a new car after mine was totalled a few weeks ago.
A black Toyota sportscar with a moonroof - always did want a moonroof!!

The band season is up and going. The countdown to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is just 80 days I think.

Life here at Progressive is hectic as we begin the fall school year. I'm working on a presentation for the AIU Community In-Service day in October, working on some thoughts and ideas for a NAMM subcommittee I am serving on in October, working to get more band for a USSBA show at Baldwin on October 7th - check it out here to sign up!!!!

Becky's wedding was last week. What a beautiful wedding and a great day!

Recently, I've discovered what real friends are and there are some friends who you think are real friends but end up being nothing like that at all. Perhaps this is just a lesson in life that we all go through. It doesn't make it any easier to lose people who you considered your friends. But, some things, seen and not seen, show people's true colors. Que sera sera I guess.

I was at the Penn State game this past Saturday. Every time I go up, I am amazed at how big that campus is. It keeps growing!!! It was rainy, but we found a dry place under and over-hang to stand and watch the whole game.

Today was the Labor Day parade downtown. Baldwin marched in the parade. It was an experience to be part of history as we marched passed the City-County building where Mayor O'Conner was. No one played as they marched down Grant Street. It was quite as even the spectators were very quite. Such a shame that his cancer took hold that fast. Life is so strange at times. I guess it's easier not to question things in life, but how can we not question life?

Why do things happen as they do? None of us will ever know.

Sally Wiggin

You all know of my former life in TV news. Here's a great aritcle about Sally Wiggin.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_465128.html

She's a fascinating character. She's given me some wonderful words of advice of the years and this article makes me think about so many things and makes me realize just how smart and how inspirational Sally is.